Ex-scout Bush hails virtues at jamboree

President makes up for missing earlier speech to 30,000

August 01, 2005|By Matthew L. Wald, New York Times News Service

BOWLING GREEN, Va. — President Bush drew cheers on Sunday from tens of thousands of Boy Scouts and their parents with talk about patriotism, morals and the role of their organization in creating leaders.

In a 17-minute speech, Bush introduced himself as a former Cub Scout from Midland, Texas, and joked that his mother had been the scout leader "about the time her hair turned white."

The president told the scouts that several senior members of his administration were former Boy Scouts--White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Through the generations, scouts have made America a stronger and better nation," Bush said. "Thousands of scouts have shown the highest form of patriotism by going on to wear the uniform of the United States."

Bush's appearance came on the last day of the scouts' National Jamboree, a gathering that began with a catastrophe: the electrocution of four adult scout leaders on July 25 when a pole in the tent they were setting up touched a power line at the jamboree's site, Military Reservation AP Hill. Two of the men had sons at the event.

On Sunday, Bush praised the scout leaders as "leaders who stepped forward to serve a good and selfless cause."

Bush had been scheduled to visit on Wednesday but had to cancel at the last minute because of thunderstorms. Thousands of scouts had already been waiting for him for hours, with temperatures in the high 90s, and about 300 scouts and guests fell sick with heat-related illnesses.

On Sunday, as temperatures went into the 80s, scout leaders urged their charges to drink water. There are approximately 30,000 scouts at the event.

Also last week a scout and a scout leader camping in California were killed by lightning.

Bush played up the virtues of scouting, listing those in the Boy Scout oath. He said that some might "question the values you learn in scouting."

"But remember, lives of purpose are constructed on conviction that there is right and there is wrong, and we can know the difference," he said.

He listed charitable activities by scouts, drawing cheers as each state was mentioned.

"On behalf of a grateful nation, I thank the Boy Scouts for serving on the front lines of America's armies of compassion," he said.